AI PR Is Killing Your Startup’s Chances With the Media
Джейсон Лемкин (SaaStr) описывает, как за последние 12+ месяцев его буквально завалили PR-питчами, подкаст-запросами и медиа-обращениями — потому что все теперь используют AI-инструменты для PR. Такие питчи прилично написаны, но никогда не цепляют, и объём вырос примерно в 50–100 раз: AI убрал трение, которое раньше работало естественным фильтром. Раньше он отвечал даже на посредственные питчи от людей, давая обратную связь и выстраивая отношения, но теперь просто мгновенно блокирует отправителей — домены, фирмы и имена основателей. Главная ловушка: испортив отношения ленивым AI-питчем, вы лишаетесь шанса быть услышанными, когда у вас наконец появится что-то действительно стоящее. Лемкин подчёркивает, что PR — это форма продаж, и работает то же, что и всегда: замедлиться, выбрать цели и сделать по-настоящему хорошо. Десять отличных, человеческих, точечных питчей превзойдут тысячу разосланных через AI.
AI PR Is Killing Your Startup’s Chances With the Media
by | Blog Posts, Marketing
Yeah. I never blocked any domains or people pre-AI … but now … every day
The rotation and throway does get around it partially though
I am surprised the lame PR apps don’t use them
— Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin (@jasonlk) May 27, 2026
For the past 12+ months, we have been absolutely inundated with PR pitches. Podcast requests. Media outreach. From both PR firms and internal comms teams. Everyone has
Why? Because they’re all using AI PR tools now.
The pitches are almost always decent. Well-written. Never compelling. But never terrible. Just good enough to get opened. But never good enough to reapond.
I used to respond to mediocre pitches from humans.
Not to say yes. But to give feedback. To tell them: don’t pitch me anything like this again, but here’s what we actually want. Here’s what an A-tier SaaStr AI Annual speaker or podcast guest looks like. Here’s what would get a yes.
That feedback loop was valuable for everyone. PR reps learned. Relationships formed. Sometimes, months later, they’d come back with something genuinely great.
I don’t do that anymore.
Why? Two reasons.
The result? I block them. Immediately. Something I never did before.
And that’s the trap your startup is falling into.
And so when you finally do have something genuinely worth pitching, I’ll never hear it.
You burned the relationship with the lazy AI pitch. The domain’s blocked. The firm’s blocked. The founder’s name triggers an instant delete.
AI PR feels efficient. You’re getting more outreach done with fewer resources. The pitches look professional. Your team feels productive.
But you’re not building relationships. You’re burning them. At scale. Faster than ever before.
What actually works hasn’t changed
A specific, human pitch. One that shows you actually read or listened to what we produce. One that makes a clear case for why this founder, this story, this angle is different from the 47 other pitches we got this week. One that a real person clearly thought about.
That stands out more today than it ever has. Because everyone else has outsourced their thinking to a tool.
PR outreach is just a specialized form of sales. Always has been.
And in sales, you’ve always been able to spray and pray. AI just makes it cheaper and faster than ever. You can blanket every podcast, every newsletter, every journalist in your category in an afternoon.
But now you might just get blocked. Before your best pitch ever gets written.
The alternative is the same one that works in great sales: slow down, pick your targets, and make it genuinely great. Ten incredible, human, targeted pitches will outperform a thousand AI-blasted ones.
Don’t be lazy with your PR. The bar for what gets attention just got higher, not lower.